Mudder 11:Skipton Day 2

Had an nice easy start to the day with a very tasty breakfast courtesy of my wonderful host Jonathan. Then a quick bus trip up to the event site and after getting myself into the 10:40 wave, did the legionnaire adulation thing again.

I had a pain in my right foot from having my laces tied tightly the day before, so I was hoping it wouldn't cause me too many problems running.

I set off at a steady pace and got up to the Glory Blades which I managed without any problems, though I felt tired after getting over them, it was only after having a lovely ice bath that I properly woke up and felt refreshed as it had ice in it this time.

After I started up a hill, there was a really cold wind that started blowing and it chilled me to my core, even the compression vest made little difference, I was hoping it wouldn't be like that for the whole run. I kept plodding on and found that the hills were really physically draining and my legs were incredibly heavy, so I was walking most of them.

There were a few mudslides that seemed to have occurred since the day before, so that was good fun. I needed help again with haha ditch again as it was so deep.

The course wound its way around the grounds with cold rain making a reappearance, though only for a short while. Electric Eel was fun with one person getting zapped a lot of times and I think they mentioned that they'd turned it off, although I'm not sure they actually did.

I managed Island Hopping again, which I was pleased about, as the air temperature was dropping and I really wasn't looking forward to any of the other water obstacles but thankfully they were relatively warm, I only did walk the plank once this time as the cold wind had picked up again and I was starting to not enjoy myself, as it reminded me of London West, from the start of the year.

On the legionnaires loop, I started to yawn as I approached Hangover Walls and after trying to get over the first one when my calf started feeling a bit crampy I was also really tired at the point, so I gave it a miss.

I also decided I would give Electroshock Therapy a miss this time, as I didn't want to use the cold rinse showers given the air was cold & windy and that I was nicely clean from Fire in your hole, another 4 hour finishing time, which I'm quite pleased about given how tiring the course was.

This course is one of the best ones I've ran so far, it uses the landscape to full effect, and really puts the tough into Tough Mudder. I've done the double once and I can check it off my list of things to do, I don't think I'll be doing that again, I would like to do two laps in one day but I think that needs a lot of training to get me round.

Overall a nice weekend running a Tough Mudder on both days and enjoying the company of good friends.

Mudder X:The Klumps

If you asked me during the first Tough Mudder I took part in, if I'd be running the event for a tenth time, I'd have probably said, you must be kidding, given that it was a horrible experience but here I am nine events later and I've decided that this would be a good weekend to do the double and run the course on both Saturday and Sunday, I only remembered how tough the course was last year after I'd entered for both events. I've just about recovered from my previous event, though I'm finding any exercise I've done in the last couple of weeks to be really tiring, so it should interesting to see if I make it round the course on the Sunday in less than eight hours. Based on the course map, they've changed the direction of the course over the bracken, so that should be interesting to see how difficult that will be.

I Got to Skipton for an nice and early time and waited for the bus which didn't take long to arrive and I got onto the site via a back entrance, quickly changing and after applying some face paint and spiking my hair. I got my bag stowed at the bag drop then getting myself into a starting wave, thankfully managing to miss the warm up scream in someone's face bit.

I started off and hoped that I wouldn't be too worn out, which aside from a couple of occasions wasn't the case at all. I was caught up by a couple of women who were from my neck of the woods and imparted my thoughts on the obstacles and we starting running together.

I gave a helping hand over each of the obstacles and got myself over most of them without too many problems, some of the obstacles needed a helping hand from other mudders like the haha ditch which was way too deep to get out of and some of the mud mile which was really muddy and slick.

At the mud mile which had some nicely high mud mounds I jumped into the mud and landed the arch of my foot on a large stone so that was annoying and painful though it didn't cause me too many problems.

I continued running and chatting to Tam and Lucy, when we reached walk the plank, I told them to keep going and I went back and did it again, this time doing a tuck jump into the water, which was great fun.

I managed to get over island hopping without falling in which put me in a really good frame of mind. I did have an issue with the hangover walls on the legionnaires loop which I felt a crampy twinge in my calf muscle but luckily I didn't cramp up.

After hearing about a guy who wanted to help 100 people conquer Everest, I stayed at the top and helped about 10 people over, which I felt good about doing.

After legionnaires loop, I got up to fire in your hole and talked to the guy at the top about Electroshock Therapy suggesting I might miss it when he mentioned that the spectators were ripping into those who were skipping it, so when the fella standing beside it mentioned it was only nine volts when I decided to go for it and started to make my way through, I think I got zapped and ended up on my arse, before crawling my way out avoiding being zapped again.

I met up with Tam and Lucy and congratulated both of them on managing to give each obstacle a try and for managing to best most of them, they were rightly pleased that they had done the event and would be doing it again.

I managed the course in about 4 hours which was pretty good going given how tough and muddy the course was, the weather was also perfect, not too cold and not blazing sunshine.

After the debacle of Kettering I stuck to one pint which a drank slowly rather than slamming it down and going back for more, which was the best idea given that I was running the course again the next day.

As I was stopping with my good friend Jonathan, I managed to score a lift back to Skipton where I managed to wander around slightly lost until I found a tesco and was able to get maps working. We had a quick and most delicious bite to eat before heading out to meet up with Annette for a few snifters of ale and a portion of chips on the way home.